Town police dispatchers have taken on more maternity duties lately, helping to deliver two babies about 12 hours apart.

"This is very unusual and has never happened around here before," said Police Lt. Stephen V. Janik.

At 3:25 a.m. on Saturday, dispatcher JoAnne McPhail received a call from a frantic Louis Cruz calling from the home he shares with his wife, Megan Cruz.

"The baby's head was out and she was coming," Cruz said Saturday from Bellevue hospital where his wife and baby Abigail were doing fine. "I laid her on the bed and had no choice but to do it myself. I was scared."

Cruz dialed 911 and got McPhail, who calmed him down and used emergency medical dispatch guidelines that were part of her training to talk the father through the delivery.

Four minutes later, and before first responders arrived, Abigail — at eight pounds, 11 ounces and 20 ½ inches long — came into the world.

"She was breathing and I tied the cord off and, oh, what a relief," Cruz said about his second child.

An earlier delivery dispatchers helped with was not in the comfort of a home, but along a busy town thoroughfare.

Her parents jumped in their car to get to the hospital but dad, Justin Rapp, had to pull over on Maple Avenue, near Glenridge Road. Justin and his wife, Jessica Rapp, got into the back seat and dialed 911. Dispatcher Laurie Fredericks talked the dad through the process until Rick Conley, a Glenville police lieutenant and an EMT, arrived in time for the endgame.

"She talked me through it until Lt. Conley arrived," said Rapp, who spoke from Bellevue hospital in Niskayuna as his infant daughter napped. "And when he got there, the baby's head started coming." And that was it.

According to Conley, the call came in at 2:42 p.m. It was dispatched at 2:45. Conley arrived at the scene at 2:46. He and Rapp delivered the baby at 2:48.

Total elapsed time, from phone call to Jadley's arrival, the couple's fifth child, was six minutes.

Mother and daughter — all 7 pounds and 13.6 ounces and 181/4 inches of her — are both happy and healthy, Justin Rapp said.

"We congratulated both of them," Janik said. "This is completely hit or miss. We get medical calls all the time but two deliveries in less than 24 hours is unheard of. We are glad everything turned out fine."